Northwest Bench: Planning Overview for the Town of Fitzhugh and Fitzhugh Mountain: 3/7/2019

Last year, when I roughed in the bench top topography on the Northwest
bench for the town of Fitzhugh and the two adjacent mountain frames, I
had a pretty good idea regarding how I wanted this area to look: a
small town between a large finger of a lake and small, flat industrial
area with two imposing rocky mountains bookending the scene.

Here is my rough topo of
the town of Fitzhugh and the mountain at the turnaround end of the Northwest bench
sketched onto XCAD printout. The town will be built on a flat
plateau at a level of 2.25 inches above bench zero between two
mountains. On the South side, it will be bisected by a deep cut at
bench elevation +0 for the double track mainlines, which will be
spanned by a roadway bridge, and will ascend the grade past the
industrial area and around the turnaround curve up to the depot
and the other side at elevation 2.25. Most of this curve will
be hidden in a tunnel through a large mountain (max elevation +14). the
track in the tunnel will be accessed both through a large opening
behind the backdrop wall and by way of a removable hatch. On the North
side of the town along the backdrop wall, the terrain will rise
abruptly up up to elevation +4 the backdrop mountain cuts-outs.

Tunnel Portals and Portal Retaining Walls3/7/2019

To begin work on the North bench, I first worked on molding, framing, and installing
tunnel portals and portal retaining walls in both mountains at Fitzhugh. I use
homasote cutouts to fashion screw-down, slightly oversize,
portal frames and then glue plaster cast portals to the frame. The
plaster castings are made using latex molds that I made years ago using
Chooch resin tunnel portals and walls as masters. Here I will need both
double track and single track portals. Before the portal glue was
fully set, I ran trains to test clearances. I always like to get the
portals adjusted and firmly set before I proceed with work on the mountains.

Here is the rough-in
of part of the town site and Fitzhugh Mountain. The first step was to set the tunnel portals and portal
retaining walls. You can see one of my homasote double track tunnel
portal frames installed in the upper left center of this
photo. The lift-out hatch base with part of the mountain frame attached
to the top is the rhomboid homasote piece in the upper center, and the
flat area to the right of that is the industrial section with its
siding. The town site is partially visible in the foreground with
its deep cut for the mainline. Here I have temporarily set the
platform in place so I can do some detailed street and
structure planning after the mountains and the lake are
complete.

Here are the portal castings and
their latex molds..

Two portals and their retaining walls
installed,clearance tested by running trains, and adjusted. Because I
use a slightly wider track spacing on curves, the
double track portals have to be broken in two at the top in order
to make a slightly wider opening. The resulting gap at the top is
easily patched with Sculptamold, which can be molded and scribed to
match the stone work for a totally seamless repair.

Constructing Fitzhugh Mountain3/10/2019

I'll begin by adding additional framing to the homasote
rough-in. Then I'll install all the exposed rock faces, and tack on the
plastic screen; next the Sculptamold, initial painting, ground zip
texturing, ground color adjustments and enhancements, and finally
ground cover, shrubs and trees.

3/10 Here is the mountain with the
additional framing and the rock faces installed.In this photo the hatch
is removed to facilitate work on the stationary frame. Next, I'll replace the hatch
and reinforce the mountain frame on top of the hatch.Then, I'll be ready
for the screen and the Sculptamold.

3/11 Here it is with the hatch in place and the screen tacked on, ready for Sculptamold.

3/13 Here is the completed application of the Sculptamold. Now the base coat of paint.

3/13 Here it is with the base paint coat completed. The rock
faces are painted a dark gray, and when dry, they will get
several dry brush coats: first a lighter gray, and finally
touches of white for highlights. The grassy areas get the red earth
under coat, while the forest and brush areas get dark brown earth
color. All the earth areas will get "Zip" texturing (powdered
plaster of Paris mixed with a blend of colored tempara powders.
This will give a highly realistic ground texture, and I'll allow patchs
of the earh undercoat to show thorugh in spots. For the exact method,
see my post of 3/12/2018.)

3/14 Here is the texturing complete, the distant forest on top
glued in place, and the light gray dry brushiung of the rock faces.
Next comes the ground cover and the white dry brush highlights ob the
rock faces.

3/15 Ground cover applied and white dry brush highlights added
to rock faces. I'll now install a thin flange to hide the joint running
up the meadow - a piece of .015 styrene tacked to one side and
painted, textured, and ground covered just like the meadow - maybe a
few small shrubs - and it should disappear. Then I'll extend the
distant blue mountain cutout on the left and articulate the tree line in front
of the patch. Next I'll work on the landscape around the rock
faces always with an eye to forcing the prespective - larger bushes
around the near rocks - smaller bushes around the rocks higher up
the slope will help.The real effective forced perspective will
come with the addition of multiscale trees getting samller and perhaos slightly grayer as they get higher up the slope.

3/18/2019 Here is the mountain with the shrubry added.

With the trees in place, the forced perspective really
works. Here is a view up the same slope. Notice the small trees lining
the base of the distant rock face to the left, the even smaller trees
that form the tree line at the top of this rock face, and the clump
foliage tree line of the very distant forest at the top of the slope to
the right. I like to use two types of trees in sizes from 7 to 1/2 inch
tall: treesw made by glueing vairious colors of clump foliage to
Woodland Scentics "tree armatures," and trees made by gluing coarse
ground cover in vatrious colors to Scenic Expresses "Super Trees"
material, a dried organic product made from some kind of artic shrubry.
I use 3M #77 all purpose spray adhesive, let the bare tree
forms get really tacky, and then press clump failage onto the
armitures, or roll the Super Trees in coarse turf material in a
variety of colors. Then I give each a quick light coat of hair spray
and highlight with light green, light gray, or yellow spray
paint.

Completely done. This really worked out well. Now on to the other mountain

Constructing the Mountain on the Fitzhugh Curve3/24/2019

I will follow the same path to create the mountain on the Fitzhugh Curve.

Here is my rough topo sketch, with elevations penciled over an XCAD printout.

Here is my rough sketch of the mountain and the lake.

3/24/2019 Here is the fame. I am in the process of adding more cross members to completely support the screen.There is
a criscrossing network of track under this mountain, so an ample access opening in
the backdrop wall is essential.

3/25/2019 Here is the completed frame with the rock faces tacked in
place. Upon completely this, I again ran trains to check
clearances. Things often shift when augmenting the framing.

4-1-2019 Altamont Mountain near completion: rock face
dry brushed
and landscaped, trees installed, and forced perspective
achieved using a Z scale house surrounded by a grove of
smaller trees on the prepared terrace about half way up the slope and a
gravel drive that disappears in to the distant forest .

Creating Altamont Lake 4/4/2019

With with the Altamont Mountain complete, I can now tackle the
adjacent finger of the lake that will lie at the base of the great
smooth rock face. Unlike all the other water features I have built on
the A&BR2, which have been, painted, and poured on sheet styrene
and then installed, this one will be poured in place owning to the
large stone footing that support the traversing steel viaduct. The
strategy is to first add the necessary homasote forms to support the
screen/homasote slopes down to the shoreline, and then to seal all the
way around the lake with Sculptamold and a heavy coat of gloss medium at
the seams, then detail paint the shore and the lake bottom, seal again,
and finally pour the Magic Water.

4/4/09 Here is the screen and the supporting
forms. Notice the long piece of homasote along the track roadbed. This
will support a low stone wall, and it abuts the lake below so I can
seal the edge.

4/4/2019 Here are the homasote
banks and shoreline that are sealed all the way around the
lake. The lake will be between 1/8 and
3/16 of an inch deep, so when the Sculptamold dries, I will seal
the
shore line up to that level all
the way around with a good heavy coat of gross medium and then paint
the lake a dark green with lighter green shallows near the shore and my
red earth for the shore line.

4/5/2019 Here is the painted lake bed. When the paint
dries, I will seal the edges with gloss medium again, add a few
underwater stones and reeds along the shore, and I'll be
ready to pour.

I encountered a serious problem after the pour. As careful as I had
been sealing the edges, I missed a spot and about half of my Magic
Water leaked out onto the floor before I noticed it and repaired the
leak. Repairing a leak like this from the outside of the enclosure can
be tough. I used modeling clay to seal along the leaking joint, but I
fear that, since the leak was along a homasote seam,
that the underside of the homasote will wick up even more of my lake before it drys. The
drying time here is about two days, so all I can do is wait and then
make a second pour on top of this one to replace the lost fluid.
Pouring multiple layers works fine with Magic Water. In fact it is
recommended for deeper pours.

4/7/2019 - The first pour is now dry, and it looks good. Although the
small rocks on the shore to the left are not fully submerged as
planned, the whole thing looks fine, and I will not bother with a
second pour to replace the leaked-out Magic Water.

Here is the finished lake.

Laying out the Town of Fitzhugh4/7/2019

While my lake is drying, I can move on the the town of
Fitzhugh. As I have mentioned before, I feel it is best to have the
bulk of the structures for a town scene complete before laying out the
scene so they can be used to fashion the look of the town. Fortunately, I still have
a lot of town buildings salvaged from the A&BR1. I spent a little
time shuffling them around on the town site trying to get the look I
wanted and making plans for handling the walls of the deep track bed
cut that divides the town into two parts.

4/7/2019 Once I have
achieved the look I
want by shuffling the buildings around, I can trace the footprint of
each structure onto the homosote, draw the streets and sidewalks and mark
the location of any lawns etc. and thus graphically layout the town to
scale
right on the homasote surface. (Notice I have covered the lake with
newspaper to prevent dust from sticking to the tacky surface
while the pour is curing.)

4/8/2019 With the town plan sketched on the homasote, I
removed the buildings and cut the .040 styrene street and paving
sheets to size, and installed the bridge.

4/10/19 The styrene sheet streets and paved areas are next laminated with 220
grit sand paper, spray painted gray with black and white misting, and glued down.
Next, the buildings are replaced, re-traced on the road surface, and
again removed, Center lines, crosswalks and sidewalks are installed. Center
lines are applied using 1/32 inch white graphic art tape. Crosswalks
are created using 3/32 inch graphic art tape. I have also pasted down labels for the LED lights.

4/13/19 LED lights installed power by the switched 12 volt bus. Again
using multiple circuits in parallel each composed of 4 5mm bulbs and a
640 ohm resistor in series.

4/16/19 Here are the
terminal blocks for the Fitzhugh LED lights mounted below a
signal control card connector on the wire mounting board.

4/20/19 Before I go on with the town layout, I'll complete the section of track-side
scenery behind the town, between the depot and the backdrop wall, so I
do not have to reach over the delicate town to do this work. Here is the Sculptamold painted and ready for ground cover.

4/22/19 Here is the nearly finished back section.

4/24/19 Again, working from the back to the front of the bench, I'll
complete the church yard section to the right of the newly complete track-side section and slightly behind the
town.

4/29/2019
Finally, the buildings are again replaced, and I am ready to
work on the walls of the cut, do some landscaping, plant some trees,
and install details like figures, and vehicles and telephone poles etc.
Here is the left half of the now nearly completed town of
Fitzhugh,

The Fitzhugh Industrial Area
5/1/2019

With the both mountains and the town of Fitzhugh and the area next to
the backdrop wall finished, the northwest bench is nearing completion.
All that remains is the industrial park on the east side of town at the
base of Fitzhugh Mountain. The space alloted for this scene is a fairly
large and flat and is bounded by the mountain, the town, and the loop
of the double track mainline track as it begins its loop into the
tunnel under Fitzhugh mountain.

The central industrial feature here will be a gravel company. I have
already purchased the Walthers Cornerstone kit for this rather massive
structure, and using the diagram on the box, I sketched the footprint
of the structure onto the homasote and installed an 1/8 inch cork pad,
an Atlas Code 55 #7 turnout, and a siding track parallel to the already
installed Fitzhugh industrial spur, again using the specifications on
the kit box to inform track layout and spacing. In addition, I have a
number of commercial structures salvaged from the old A&BR1
including a fuel oil distributor, a freight house, a stock yard, and a
grain elevator. I placed these buildings on the layout and sketched in
the footprint of each onto the homasote, and at the same time I
sketched in the route of the main highway that will pass through the
center of the industrial park and cross the mainline line loop. I also
order a crossing gate from New Jersey International.

Here is the industrial area laid out
with structures, an 1/8 inch cork pad for the gravel company, the new
siding, and the roadway outline. There will be two small forested
hillocks over the open spaces in the homasote, one to either side of
the grain elevator. I still have a large open space between the roadway
and left hand forest. I'll decide what to place here later after I get
a feel for the rest.

After completing this scene, I
added a littel truck farm in the open space - some corn rows, beans,
adn atractor plowing rows.Then I
ballasted all of the track on the North bench and cleaned the
track well and then applied a thin coat of No Ox A Special. Here
is
the completed section. I have yet to construct the gravel company kit,
but the rest is now done.

Running Trains and Making Adjustments
5-24-2019

While I have been working on the last section of the North
Bench, the rest of the layout has spent over a month idle under my
dustcover.

Layout with dust cover.

As I have already mentioned, I don't like to go too long without
running trains, so with the completion of the Fitzhugh sexton, I
uncovered everything and ran my demonstration schedule routine. This
involves six trains running all of the mainline track on the layout
complete with full sound, station stops, sunrise and sunset lighting
sequences - the works. Things ran quite well, thanks, in large part (I
think) to No Ox A Special.

Over the past year or so I have been having trouble with a passenger
train that I call the Blue Ridge Crescent. This train is comprised of a Southern Railway Kato
E9 unit pulling six Con-Cor silver streamlined cars (baggage, coaches,
sleepers, dinning, observation etc.) All of the cars have been
retro-fitted with MicroTrains trucks, but they are old, and many have
hit the floor more than a few times. Coupler problems and derailments
seem unavoidable no matter how much tweaking I do to get things
adjusted just right. It has been an ongoing source of aggravation for
far too long. So last month, I decided to retire these Con-Cor cars
(demoting them to scenery) and replace them with 7 MicroTrains
heavyweight passenger units. I spent a considerable amount of time tweaking track
and turnouts trying to get these to run smoothly, only to finally find,
that 6 of them ran consistently well, while seven caused frequent
derailments on curves - just too much weight to keep center cars from
jumping the rails.

With this adjustment, I began to get near prefect
execution running all schedules my schedules. So I covered
everything back up and moved on.Beginning Work on the West Bench.
6-4-2019

The West bench will be the City of Altamont. It is a raised city
terraced into the side of a gentle slope. The
city will be built
on two hinged sections, which lift up to allow access to the 4 hidden
mainline tracks and the 4 hidden sidings below. My plan is to
remove the the hinged
sections and build the the back half of the City of Altamont on the
work bench. The rear sections of these hinged tops next to the back
drop are a little difficult to reach in place on the bench, so
removing them will make things much easier. After the real halves are
completely detailed and wired with lights and everything is glued down,
I can simply reinstall these sections by re-attaching the hinges.
I can then build and detail the front halves on these hinged sections
in place on the bench. I'll start with the northern-most hinged section.

The first order of business will be to install and program the BD4 and
the DS64, which will supply block detection of the city's streetcar line, and then run all the the wiring for the North hinged
section to a barrier block to be mounted on the fixed bench frame just
below the North hinged section. Here I will make connections for the +
and - 12 volt switchable lighting buses, and for the streetcar rails -
a district 95 B rail common (black) and two A rail power feeders
(Streetcar #1 - 95-BD4-76/38-9 and Streetcar
#2 - 95-BD4-76/38-11). All of the wiring for this section will come
together in a flexible bundled thether and wire into this fixed barrier
block. The tether will allow slack for the raising of the section frame to access the track below.

The street car line will consist of two visible and two hidden blocks
of track. Two of these blocks, one visible and one hidden, will be part
of this North hinged section, and two will be on the middle section of
the bench work below. The idea is to use two identical street cars, one
to travel down the main street of the North hinged section and then disappear below ground, and the
second, which will, after a pause, appear from the hidden section on the central bench below and
run to a streetcar platform along side the Altamont Main Terminal
Station. Thus, I can have a line from the city to the station
without having to have any track cross the over the edge of the hinged
section of framework.

West bench with hinged sections open.

West bench with hinged sections closed.

North hinged section drawing. The
9.875 inch wide section supported by 2x4s on the right is a
raised section 5 inchs above bench. 0. It is already complete, and it
carries one mainline track and a siding. The hinges are attached
to the back of this section so that the entire rear part of the
terraced city will swing up and allow access to the track below from
behind the backdrop wall through a large opening in the backdrop wall
(far left).

Block detection for the 4 blocks
of the Streetcar line will be handled by an old BD4 and a DS64 for
loconet reporting. This old BD4, which I have had lying around for
years is a simple devise. It takes A rail track power in
(left), and if it sees voltage caused by a loco running on any of the
four A rail outputs (left), it causes the corresponding trigger output
(right) to go high. These trigger outputs are connected to the inputs
of a DS64 stationary decoder, and the DS64 sends a loconet message
indicating occupancy to the computer via loconet. The BD4 can
present problems with modern loco decoders, but since I
will be running only the two streetcars on the section, this should not
present a problem.

As simple as this is, I could not seem to get it to work and I spent
almost two days going back and forth with Digitrax because I was not
seeing the red light on the unit flicker indicating that message was
being sent, only to finally realize that the sending unit in this set
up does not give a red light loconet message indication, but all the
other loconet devises do. I just was not looking at the other devise,
and they had been blinking away all along.

Finally, calculating the addresses to use in TrainController in order
to process the DS64 occupancy message is not a simple matter, but with
a liitle help form the Digitrax online forum, I got it worked out.

The next move is to
detach the Northwest hinged top from its hinges, place it on the work
bench and attach the upper level homasote decking to the terraces. Then
I'll do some measuring and finalized the town street layout.

Here is the Northwest hinged top on
the work bench with the homasote decking screwed down on the upper
terrace, Before I go any farther I want to finalize the exact street
layout.

I placed a scrap piece of homosote on
the lower level terrace, and then, using a few assembled structures
as guides, I penciled in the beginning of the street plan,
checking for ample depth for the rows of buildings, for nice wide
streets, alleyways, and sidewalks, and for clearance for the
street car to pass under bridges at the three cross streets.

Street Layout measurements This differs a good bit for the
original plan above. Re-tweaking the plan in the 3 dimensional space
before beginning construction almost always leads to changes like this
as new possibilities become appearent.

New street layout overview.

With these detailed drawings as a guide, I can now layout the
silhouettes, streets, and sidewalks for the entire Northwest hinged
section. Once that is done. I'll fill in the detail for the rear half of the hinged section working from back
to front using the structures I have on hand from the old A&BR1 and
carefully noting what additional structures I'll need. This is a big job
and it will take some time. As I have done previously, I will post progress
photos and text as I go.

6/11/2019
- I began with the homasote
mountain silhouettes. The higher one on the very back of the top
terrace.will go flush against the wall when the lid is down. The lower
silhouette in front is is the near treeline, and is separated from the
higher one with a 3/4 inch plywood
spacer/nailer in between. This arrangement adds a lot of
perceived depth near the backdrop, especially when I use a finer,
slightly grayer,
foliage cover on the back silhouette and place cutouts of distant
buildings and steeples etc. in between the silhouette layers. Next I'll
spray paint these homosote forms black, and then begin working of
laying out the
streets and sidewalks.

6/12/2019 - Here is the street, alley,
and sidewalk styrene cut for the upper level. Notice I have cut no
sidewalks for the near side of the street, because most of this will be
hidden by buildings. I will not know what is required until all the
buildings are in place.

6/13/2019 - After disassembling and numbering all these
styrene pieces, I
cut and glued down the 220 grit sandpaper street surfaces and spray
painted everything - black undercoat for the mountain silhouettes, a
dark gray with black highlights for the streets
and a much lighter gray for the sidewalks. I also installed the
track for the streetcar line with no cork underlay roadbed, and I
glued it all
down. Finally, cut a piece of homasote for the factory site 1/2 inch
above the upper terrace to perfect the structure fit, and I constructed
the two bridge sections I plan to use and placed them on some temporary
abutments so I could check spacing and clearances.

6/14/2019 Having a number of finished structures is helpful when laying
out city blocks Here I have use a few structures to inform the spacing
of the street grid on the lower level. Notice I have also installed a
lighted streetcar platform. Next, I'll install the bridge abutments and
cover all the streets with 220 grit sandpaper, paint tem, glue them
down, and install the bridges and sidewalks.

6/15/2019 Here is the completed track, street, and
sidewalk
glue down with the platform and the two bridge with abutments and
supports in place.Next I'll install the crossings. I have
yet to
install alleyways, because the width of these will vary depending on
the structures I use in various blocks, so this will come last.

6/17/2019 Today I am working on retaining walls for the
ramps. I am using thin HO scale brick styrene sheets painted a dark red
brown and then laminated with .040 styrene backing to simulate
finished brownstone walls.
Each wall gets a light brown strip styrene "masonry" cap and a concrete
footing fashioned from strip styrene. I'll also put the lines and
other markings on the streets now as this will be difficult after the
buildings are in place. I'll also hook up some track power to the
streetcar line, and run the street car back and forth a few time to
check clearances and to make sure that the crossings and the sidewalk
that hug the tracks do not interfere with the anything running on the
track.

6/18/2019 Finally, I'll glue the foliage to
the mountain
silhouette to the top of the tree line silhouette, and place the
half buildings I have on hand along the silhouette. I have
ordered a dozen or so more DPM structure kits to begin filling in
the
city. While I am waiting for those to arrive, I'll finish covering
the silhouettes with foliage and place all the structures along the far
side walk next to the silhouette and install LED lights in all
installed
structures and then detail the far sidewalk and glue everything down.
When this is all done , I'll reinstall the entire North hinged
section on the layout and finish
detailing this section in place.

Here is a short section of the finished back 3 inches of the hinged
top. The use of the two homosote silhouettes separated by 3/4 of an
inch with photo cutouts in between along with the use of half
buildings (about 1 inch deep) gives the illusion of considerable depth
achieved in a very narrow band along the back edge of the 3 dimensional
scenery. It will also accomplish a nice "invisible" visual transition
the to the 2 dimensional mountains and sky on the backdrop wall.

Finishing Up at Fitzhugh. 6/22/2019I am away for a few days, and I brought along two
structure kits (a Walthers Conerstone depot and a Cornerstone gravel plant) to
assemble while I am away. I spray painted all the parts before I left,
so all I had to do was assemble these two structures. When I get back I
do a little weathering on the gravel plant and the Fitzhugh
section will be complete.

Detailing the City of Altamont on the Hinged Bench Top.
6/23/2019

Continuing with rear half of Altamont City hinged top construction, I am in the process of
painting, assembling, detailing, and arranging the 10 new DPM
structures I just bought. This is slow going because, as I go, I am
constructing each structure to fit in a specific place. This means that
many walls that are not visible to the viewer can be retained for
another use. For example, if the building faces the viewer, the back is
not necessary. Likewise, some of the sides are not needed if it abuts
other buildings or faces a street perpendicular to the backdrop wall.
In this way, I pretty much double the number of structures I can make
from the 10 kits.

6/24/2019 /Here are the completed
structures for the center block behind the three tall buildings.
Because the tall buildings block some of the viewer's view of this
area, and because of their orientation on the block, I have omitted
many panels here, and save them for use elsewhere. .

6/25/2019 This all makes sense when the new structures are
arranged in place on the city block along with the old structure I already had
on hand left over from the A&BR1. Most of the open area in the
center of the block is hidden from the viewer, so a few trees, the
surface area visible between the buildings, and short sections of
the alleyway surface are all that is needed here. There is a lot
more detailing to be done, and of course, I need to install lights and glue everything down, but
for now, I'll leave this block and move on to the rear portion on the
far left (South) side of the North hinged section.

6/29/2019 The fat left-rear (South) side of the North hinged
section is high ground leading up to the hilltop Cathedral complex that
I have planned for the North side of the adjacent South hinged section.
On this high ground I will place a high-end hotel and a three story
commercial building with shops etc. These structures are built
from European kits and they give a nice contrast to the the
American DMP models in the rest of the city. They will overlook the
courthouse and public buildings (fire house - city hall) complex that
will occupy the left-front portion of the North hinged section
and will be separated from the courthouse complex by a rocky,
wooded, part/hillside.

Here is the installed framework and screen for this section.

Here is the Sculptamold applied, ready for paint, ground texture, and ground cover.

7/7/2019 Here is the finished rear left area.

Third Annual Train Room Clean Up. 7/8/2019

In my never ending battle with dust, it is time for my annual
complete train room cleaning. This involves getting everything off the
center bench and off the floor and off the the shelves behind the
backdrop, and then cleaning everything that came off the bench and the
shelves and the shelves and bench top themselves, as well
as sweeping, vacuuming, and mopping the floor and dusting for cob
webs in the lighting soffit and behind the back drop walls. It a job!
Ironically the cleaning itself stirs up a lot of duct, so I must be
sure all sections of the dust cover are in place before I begin.

7/8/2009 Cleared the entire center bench (5' x 20') right down to the
3/4" plywood temporary decking, swept, vacuumed, and wiped it all down
with a damp towel. Took everything out of my roll-around utility cart,
cleaned the cart all the stuff that was in it.

7/9/2019 Cleaned out and reorganized all 5 of my my tool boxes
(carpentry, electrical, paints, detail, and mechanical) and returned
them all to the center bench top.

7/10/2019 Today
I removed everything form the
behind-the-backdrop shelves, wiped everything off, vacuumed the
shelves and drawers, and return everything to its place. I highly
recommend clearing out tool boxes and storage areas occasionally, not
only to keep the dust down, but also for organizational reasons. Today
I found all kinds of stuff that I have been looking for as well as a
bunch of stuff I did not know I had. I bought dry wall joint tape just
last week, and today I found three rolls of the stuff.

Finished
mopping about 3/4 of the train room floor. In the past, I have had the
feeling that mopping of the
train room floor was more about moving the dirt around than
about getting it up. So this time I swept thoroughly and then used my
big mop to wet the
concrete floor down really well; then I used a damp towel
to wipe the water (and the dirt) up. Working in small sections and
keeping the towel rung out and clean surely works much better, but it
takes some time.

7/11/2019 Floor cleaning complete. To complete the annual clean up, I
wiped all the dust covers with a damp towel. I have not run trains in quite a while, so before returning to work on the Northwest hinged cover, I'll remove the dustcover and run some schedules
today.

Lighting the City of Altamont on the Hinged Bench Top.
7/12/2019

The last step before replacing the Northwest hinged top back on
the layout is to light all the structures I have placed in the back
half of the city next to the backdrop wall and to install and wire the
crossing gate by the streetcar platform and the the blinking red LED on
top of the radio tower. At this point I will create the main wiring
tether from the stationary barrier block I placed beside the hinged
section on the main bench-frame back in June. The tether will be a
flexible bundle of wire long enough to allow for the opening and
closing of the hinged section. It will contain the A rail track
power for two blocks of the streetcar line (red), the B rail
common (black), the 12 volt leads from the DS64s driving the blinking
red radio tower LED and the crossing gate LEDs (white/brown) and the
switched 12volt lighting power to the lighting distribution block
(white/brown).

Here is the LED light distribution block for the hinged section.

Here is the hinged top on the work bench with the rear section complete.

Continuing Work on the Northwest Hinged Section.7/15/2019

I am now ready to reinstall the hinged top on the bench
top.

There are four city blocks still to construct and detail.
I'll start with the narrow block farthest to the rear. This
block will get three tall buildings fronting on the streetcar
line. The center building is the tallest of the three and it will get a
high radio tower with a blinking LED light driven by a single output of one
of my DS64s in the crossing light 800ms blinking mode and a 1k resistor. The tower will
be
stabilized by four cables made from a .012 inch guitar string.
All three tall buildings get interior lights just
like
the other buildings that I just lit (four 5mm LED in parallel with
a
640 ohm resistor). The tall buildings will be secured to the frame
using Velcro. All
of the the structures on this section must be fastened to the frame so
they will remain in place when the lid is angled and open. For the
smaller structures I am using double sided tape and Velcro for the
larger structures. All details are glued down as I continue work of the
other city blocks nearer to the front edge of the bench.

Also, I completed the wire tether and connected everything to the barrier
block I installed earlier on the stationary part of the bench. All LED
lights, the crossing gate, tower blinker and the streetcar line track power are
all functioning along with the sounds of crossing bells and and the
streetcar clapper bell.

Hinged top reinstalled on the stationary bench and the nearly completed layout of the remaining town buildings

Hinged top open. Track beneath is accessed from behind the backdrop wall.

The Courthouse, Fire Station, and Police Station.8/24/2019

I have been on vacation, and I am now back. This week I worked
on the last little section of the hinged top, including the addition of two municipal buildings for the City of Altamont. Planning the Southwest Hinged Top 8/25/2019

I now have only to plan and install the north hinged bench top scenery,
and I will have completed the entire layout perimeter. Before I begin
with this last section, in
order to ensure a good transition, I want also to plan the adjoining section of
the center bench top, which will contain my grand passenger terminal. I will begin with a number of rough
sketches, and then I'll install the 3/4" plywood decking and the
homasote top for the first 8 feet of the center bench. That will allow me to mock up
my terminal buildings and platforms in two dimensions of the flat top
before constructing the terracing. As I did everywhere on the layout, I'll later install
all turnouts on long prefabricated plywood/homasote runners so I
can do the underside wiring on the bench and thus avoid having to crawl
around under the bench - I am getting too old for that. I will
construct these runners now as part of the bench top construction

Next, I'll
construct two removable sections for the back half of the hinged top.
Since this hinged section hinges at the backdrop wall, the topography
near the wall must be removed to allow clearance when opening the
section, and since the back-right-hand area is the only place on the
layout that I cannot easily reach, I have to make the two back sections
removable. This is not the most convenient arrangement, but it is
unavoidable, and it will not create much of a problem since the rear
sections contain no track, and the only wiring on them will be for
structure lights, which will be on plug so I can remove the section
before opening the hinge.

Rough sketch for the scenery on the second hinged top.

Decking for the first eight feet of the center bench.

Decking with the prefab track/turnout runners removed.

Rough sketches and preliminary plans and
elevations for the
terminal complex and the terminal complex mock up. As always, it really
helps to have most of the key structures already fabricated so I can
get the layout, track spacing and all the clearances just right. Here I
have just roughed things in with pencil lines on the homasote.
I'll develop better drawings and then get it
dead accurate after I install the cork. Only then will I install the
track.

Constructing Scenery on the Southwest Hinged Top.9/2/2019

First, I'll use homasote to make topographical framing for the two
removable back sections. Then I'll place the removable sections
on the
bench and install the homasote
terracing, roadways and
any additional topographical framing. Then, I'll add the plastic
screen, rock faces, and finally the Sculptamold and paint. At this
point, I'll do some detailed structure selection and placement planning
and finally I'll add the ground texture, ground cover, landscaping,
trees. lights, and other details.

Right-hand removable section completed on the bench.

Removable sections in place and road runners, framework and terracing complete.

Left-hand removable section frame in progress on the bench

Both removable sections complete on the bench.

Both removable sections in place on the hinged top. I now
have only to wire up the lights for these sections. Since they will be
removable, I'll have to devise some kind of easily accessible,
detachable plug for each section.

Completed left hinged section with removable section in place.

This hinged section looks good, and it works - that is to say, when
open, it allows good
access to the track and turnouts of the main line track and the
hidden yard below. However, it has some problems. The removable
sections are very awkward to handle, and the small one fits too tightly
against the backdrop, which causes foliage to be scraped off and settle
on the track below every time it is removed or replaced. I think if
I cut these
lengthwise so they are about 4 or 5 inches from the wall, I
will be able to open
the entire hinged section enough to service track below without
removing the
removable sections. The elevations are such that the gap will be
hidden from the viewer, and the void will actually help with the
illusion of depth between the high ground on the back of the removable
sections and the flat mountain cutouts attached to the backdrop wall.
Also, now I don't have to fumble with the light plugs, I can
just make a flexible tether like I did on the other hinged section,.

Completed left-hand hinged section after alteration.

Left-hand hinged top open after alteration.

Installing Lighting Baffles Above the Center Bench10/2/2019

Before I begin with the scenery on the center bench, I need to
install some lighting baffles overhead. The lighting soffits I have
designed do a good job hiding all the lights. They hide both the fluorescents
and the HUE lights as well. There is, however, one place in the room
that is a problem in this regard. If one stands at the East end of the
center bench and looks Westward back down the center section toward the
City of Altamont, the lights overhead are visible. The solution is to
hang several opaque baffles running laterally across the soffit above
the center bench and
hanging down about a foot or so from the ceiling. I will have to
experiment a little with the size and with the material (fabric
or foam
poster board). Needless to say, once the center bench is covered with
scenery, this overhead area will be much more difficult to access. So I
had best do this now.

The deep lighting sofit hides the lights well, except when looking westward back down the center bench.

Three baffles installed. I painted some wooden
strips
with hooks sky blue and glued them to the ceiling. Then I used
florist wire to hang sky blue, 12" x 36" baffles made from
foam-centered posted board. This works, but I think sky blue pleated
fabric
that is the full width of the sofiit might look better. I've ordered 1
light blue polyester skirt -12" by 48" .

Uugh! Bad idea! I think the poster board is a much better look. Perhaps I can find some that is the full width of the soffit.

Constructing the Grand, Terraced Altamont Terminal Complex.10/7/2019

Now
it is time to pull out the plans and sketches I made back in late
August and proceed with the construction of my grand terminal complex.
This is a complicated affair, with multiple levels connected by covered
stairways (3 x Faller #20119). The complex will include two north-south
platforms on the upper level, and four east-west platforms for the seven tracks of the ladder and the streetcar track down at
bench-level below. These eight tracks will all terminate under the
main terminal structure, so I'll need to build the entire structure on
a hinged terrace so I can service the track below.

10/7/2019 First I installed the 1/8 inch
sheet cork roadbed for the eight tracks of the lower level ladder, and then I
drew the track center lines and the platform locations on the cork. Next I laid out the hinged terrace.Here is the basic terracing layout with a few
key structures in place to check alignment, spacing, and clearances. The
underground overhead clearance is
1 11/16 inches, easily high enough for my tallest passenger car.

10/8/2019 After
a final check of the track spacing, I drilled the dropper
holes, and laid and glued down the track.

10/10/2019 Before I continue working on the hinged
terrace, I will
install the mainline track entrances to the center bench. This will
eventually be a loop all the way around the center bench
with entrances from both the North and the South bench at either
end. Both mainline entrance
tracks come in from the hidden yard under the city, entering just
to the south of
the terminal complex. It would have been easier if I had installed
these runners,roadbeds and tracks before I built the hinged sections on
the West
bench, but I managed to install both curved sections, including 3/4
plywood runners, homasote surfaces. cork roadbed, and
track. The more scenery I build in the area, the harder it will
be to install these mainline runners and track, so it was
best to do it now while things ares still open.

10/11/2019
I next installed the
hinged terrace, which will support the main terminal building,
the two freight houses, and
another double, covered stairway (2 x Faller 20119), which will supply
pedestrian
access from the terminal building to the the upper level platforms. I
also installed the terrace
supports. Here is photo of the hinged terrace open. Notice I have used
sized lumber and cork to construct the supports.. This is a practice
that I employ throughout the project to achieve my desired elevations.
Lumber sizing is very accuarte, and this method is much easier than
cutting pieces to size. In this case I achied
exactly a 1 5/8 inch overhead clearance by using a 1 x 2 ( which I know
to be exactly 1 1/2 inches and a 1/8 onch strip fof cork.

10/12/2019 Here I have installed
the track and two turnouts for the mainline entrances while continuing work on the
layout of the depot complex on the hinged terrace.

10/18/2019 Over the last few days I have installed tunnel portals, retaining walls, paving,
street markings and sidewalks.
as wells as LED light wiring for all the sheds, platforms,
and stairways. I'll be using directional 3 mm LEDs in series groups of
four wired in parallel each with a 680 ohm resistor and for the main
terminal building and the two freight houses using 5mm LEDs in
series groups of four with a 680 ohm resistor. To the left is a photo of the completed
light wiring with terminal block (yet to be labeled) and hinge-tether
for the hinged section.

10/22/2019 Wired the streetcar tracks and programmed the streetcar
sequence that simulates a shuttle between the main streetcar platform
in Altamont City to the streetcar platform of the terminal complex
below using two identical streetcars (see post of 6/4/2019).

10/29/2019 Next, I built and installed installed
the upper stairways and the two freight houses
and and some additional covered and uncovered platforms, and
two dummy spurs beside the freight houses. Finally,
I finished things off with landscaping, vehicles, figures, and other
details to
complete the scene. Here is the finished hinged terminal terrace. I
have yet to complete the platforms for the crossing tracks above the
terrace.

Now, I will construct two long platforms for the upper level of the
terminal complex. Each will be made using 6 sections of Walthers
butterfly platforms with four 3mm LED lights in each section. The
light installation will be accomplished using the same method described
in the entry of 9-23-2016.

Bringing a Second Computer On line and Installing NET Software11-8-1019

As I mention much earlier in this blog, since I plan to have a separate 4D Sound system for the center bench, I'll need two computers to
run the completed A&BR2. I'll use the first computer
(A&BR2-MAIN) to control and supply 7.1 surround sound to the
the peripheral part of the layout next to the walls, and I'll use the
the second computer (A&BR2-TERMINAL) to run and supply stereo sound
on a separate sound system to the center bench section. The two
computers will benetworked together using a TCP/IP network and running Railroad and Company's "Net" software. Both computers
are up and running, and I have installed TC and 4D Sound on both
as well as the drivers for my current surround sound box and for
the lighting servo controller, and I am running schedules complete with
sound including all train sounds and a number of stationary sounds as
well, I am also running all lighting effects including HUE light
sunrises and sunsets.

Before I buy and install the Railroad & Co. NET software and a
second sound box and speakers, there are a number of things I need to
do to insure that both computers are setup to handle NET.
1. First, I need to setup a TCP/IP network. This should be simple
enough, but there is a problem. The second computer has been sitting
idle for well over a year now, and in the interim, Microsoft has issued
a major update, which, among other things, completely changes the way
Windows handles home networks. So, the first thing to need do is to
complete all the windows updates needed to get both units running the
exact some version of windows with all the same updates completed on
both. Then I'll network them together using the new
Windows networking procedures. This will entail making the
Internet connection
on both computers private and then setting up file sharing. Whether or
not this setup constitutes an adequate TCP/IP network environment for
RR&Co's NET software, I do not know. Whatever the case, I also plan
to experiment with a hard-wired, Ethernet network network as well.
2. The next move is to install a second Computer/LocoNet interface for
the second computer using a second RRCirkits unit attached to and
installed in the second computer, A&BR2-TERMINAL. I'll also
purchase and install a second ENCORE sound box on A&BR2TERMINAL and
speakers for the center bench. I'll then test
these interfaces by disconnecting the A&BR2-MAIN interface from
loconet and
running TrainController on A&BR2-TERMINAL using the current .yrrg
file to control all of my
current layout. This will also test the HUE lights wifi control
interface, the servo control for the fluorescent lights, and the new
surround sound interface with 4D sound.
3. I'll then create new .yrrg files for both units, removing all the
blocks on the center bench (except the two entrance/distributed blocks from the file running on MAIN, and using
only the blocks on the center bench on TERMINAL. Then I'll test each
computer/datafile setup separately. (I have laid and wired up only the two
dsitrubuted blocks on the center bench, but this should be enough for the initial
testing.)

Once all of this done, I can purchase and install the NET software and
run both computers at once - with MAIN controlling and supplying
sound for the peripheral layout, and TERMINAL controlling and supplying
sound for the center bench. The two blocks that I have laid and
wired up on the center bench are the entrances to this center section
from the peripheral section. These will be the only "distributed
blocks," and thus they will be included in both new .yrrg files. Once
all of this is accomplished, I will be ready to experiment with some
inter-sectional schedules that will pass control from one computer to
the other.

11-12-2019 I have
orderered a second ENCORE Sound Box and four more Gear Head
desktop speakers. I have encountered a problem with computer to layout
interface on the second computer. One of my RR-Cirkits Locobuffers
works fine for this interface, the other works after a fashion but
exhibits some anomalies. After a discussion with the designer at
RR-CirKits, I have ordered a new one.

11-13-2019 I received the speakers today, and, after testing them
using the left/right and center outputs of my existing sound box,
I began work on their installation on the center bench.

Mounting boards for the center speakers for the center bench in the foreground, and for the left and right speakers behind.
Barrier blocks include a 5 volt power pair, 2 pairs of sound box-to-amplifier
wires along with separate ground wires to prevent hum, and, in the case of
the left /right speakers, a long pair connecting the amp in the
right speaker to the left speaker.

Unlike the peripheral speakers fed by the surround sound
7.1, I want these stereo speakers to be non-directional, so I will
mount them all centered on the underside of the bench facing down toward the
floor.

Here is the installed 7.1 surround sound box and it's
associated barrier block. I want a stereo output, but I'll set this up
in 7.1 surround with the subwoofer turned off and nothing pliuged into
the speaker ports for L/R rear or L/R surround. This way I'll get
stereo with a descreet output to the center speaker.

11-15-2019 Soundbox and speakers
installation completed, tested, and working. Now I'll will create
the two new .yrrg files, and I'll order the TranContrller Net software.
11-18-2019 I have encounter a small problem. Here is my post to solicit help on the Train Controller forum:

Greetings.
I am about to add a large, new section to my N scale Altamont and Blue
Ridge Railway, and I plan to use a second computer to exercise control
over and to supply 4D sound to this new section with the help of
TrainController Net software, which I am am about to purchase.

I have two identical computers running Windows 10, They share files and
a printer using a conventional WIFI LAN network with “Network
Discovery” on. Both computers are running the same version of
windows 10 and both are running the up-to-date version of
TrainController Gold (one with the license stick installed, and one
running in the demo mode). They are both connected to the layout using
separate RRCirKIts LocoBuffer units (Computer #1 is connected to
LB-Unit A, which always installs on com5, and computer #2 is connected
to LB-UnitB, which always installs on com4.

This all works fine when I start up in the morning, but there is a
problem. If I close TrainController on computer #2. When I restart TC,
it cannot find the LocoBuffer, while computer #1 works fine after a
restart. I tried a new LocoBuffer unit with computer #2, and it does
the same thing, so it does not appear to be a problem with the
LocoBuffer unit. In troubleshooting, I find that if I disconnect
LB-UnitB from Computer #2 while TC is still running, and l then plug in
LB-UnitA, and then reset the TC connection to com5 - it works. What is
odd, is this: with TC still running, if I switch computer #2 back to
LB-UnitB and reset the TC connection back to com4, - it works. When I
exit the software and restart TC– it fails.

Furthermore, if I swap out the Locbuffers, so Computer1 is connected to
LB-UnitB and Computer 2 is connected to LB_ UnitA, the problems follows
LB-Unit2/com4, but it is not the LB Unit, for if I install a new one it
too, fails.

The next morning, everything boots up fine, but com 4 fails on a restart.

This appears to me to be some kind of com port conflict, that under
some (but not all) conditions effects com port 4 on both/either
computer(s), but I can’t be sure. I tried forcing a LB-UnitB from
com4 to com6, but it exhibited the same behavior.

11-19-2019 I purchased NET today and after installation the com port problem went away. Here is another TC forum post:
Greetings

I got my NET license today and installed NET on both computers
and got things working pretty well, and the problem went away. This is
good, but a little frustrating because it does not explain what the
problem was.- something with the ports and the windows network that
went away when the two computers running TC were properly networked
together using NET.

I
did have a few issues while I was setting things up. A couple of times
TC went into the Freeze mode and computer #2 lost its connection and
could not find the LocoBuffer on com4 - even though it showed it was
still connected to com4. But now with NET running all I have to do is
re-connect to com4 using the Digital Systems window on the Railroad
Menu.

Now that I have everything all set up, things appear pretty stable. We'll see.

I'll now move on to getting NET fully set up and tested and
tweaking the sound and creating shared blocks and remote test schedules
that allow me to pass schedule successions from one computer
to the other.

Here are the two computers running NET.

11-20-2019 I set up my distributed blocks at the entrances/exits to the
new center section, and they seemed to work fine. Next I tested
the sound on computer #2. It did not work. After some troubleshooting,
I decided to reinstall the 4D sound license, and that fixed the
problem. ( I am not sure I ever installed it in the first place.)

While I was troubleshooting the sound, I realized that computer #2
was operating in the demo mode despite an apparently successful sign
in. After messing with the windows network setup, I finally realized
that the license it needed was on the RR &Co USB doggle on computer
#1. I was sharing the C:\\ drive but not the doggle, which showed up as
E:\\. This little drive also had to be set up for sharing. Once
this was done, the sign-in worked fine, and computer #2 operated in the
licensed mode. Unfortunately, while I was fiddling with the windows
network, I changed something, and now the distributed blocks I set up
do not work, I spent the rest of the day trying to set this right.

11-21-2-19 With a fresh mind I got to the bottom of my problems pretty
quickly. I checked to make sure everything on the c:\\ drive was shared
by everyone on the network with read&write&full control
permissions. I checked that password sharing was off in all cases (it
was not), and I checked that network discovery was allowed on both
computers. This fixed it. I had inadvertently made a change or two.

Then I set up my schedule hand off by creating a couple of remote
schedules that pass a schedule successor from one computer to the
other when a train arrives in one of the two distributed entrance
blocks. This all works great. I do sometimes have a bit of a time
getting both computers connected at start up owing to the
squirrelly com port problem on computer #2. But everything does
eventually connect, and other than this little anoyance, it
all works great so far.

Now, I will do some sound tests.

11-22-2019 Sound works fine. When train is in the
distributed block, I get sound from both systems. I could the sound off
on one , but I think it is best with both. This is not perfect, but it
is not much of a problem.

Hillside Transitions from West Bench to Center Bench
11-23-2019

I began this transition when I built the terracing for Altamont
Terminal, now I'll complete it by adding a rocky slope with two tunnel
portals for the entrance mainline tracks to North of the terminal. Before I begin.
I'll hook up the lights in the upper level platforms at Altamont
terminal and completely clear the center bench in preparation for
track laying, re-organizing the roll-around cart and placing the tools I
use regularly on it, constructing some shelves behind the back drop wall
for my tool boxes, and moving the computers and monitors to a temporary
table.

Upper level platform lights

Roll-around cart re-organized.

New toolbox shelves behind the back drop wall.

Computers on the temporary table.

Portals, rocks, and
framing for the North transition base paint coat. Note the top is
removable so I can access the track in the tunnel.

North transition complete.

Center bench cleared,

Constructing the Altamont Terminal Ladder
12-5-2019

Today I'll begin work on the terminal ladder, which will include seven
#7 Atlas Code 55 turnouts. As before I'll wire the turnouts, Tortoise
machines, dwarf lights, and barrier blocks on prefab runners, so I can
easily have access to the under side without having to crawl around
under the bench. Laying this out will be a little tricky, because I
want the turnout spacing to reflect the two by two sapcing dictated by the platforms, and there is an
under-the-bench support member to work around. I'll have to take care that the layout
of these turnouts ovewr this support avoids any interference with the Tortoise machines. I
can notch these supports to accommodate track and lighting wiring, but the
turnouts must be placed in such a way that the Tortoise machines are
clear of these supports. Also, before I install the turnouts, I
had best finish installing the lighting baffles in the soffit above
while I can still climb around on the cleared bench.

Here is the initial layout of the
terminal ladder with the turnouts connected one to another and the rest
of the track roughly tacked in place.Once I am satisfied with all of the alignment, I'll take the track up, glue
down the cork, cut the runner, redraw all the track center lines
on the cork, and install the turnouts. barrier blocks, Tortoise
machines, and lights. Once this completed and runner is back in place on the bench top, I'll lay
the rest of the track and glue it down.

Here is the cut out section on a
special bench with the cork glued down and the track center lines
drawn. It is now ready for the laying and wiring of the
turnouts and the installation of the Tortoise interfaces (see page one of this blog - entries
for 6-7-2016 thru 7-8-2016). I'll now paint and weather the turnouts,
and then wire and install them, along with the barrier blocks, Tortoise
machines, and dwarf signals. The temporary homasote pads
are designed to ride on the supports and protect the turnouts and lights when I flip
this over to work on the other side (bottom).

Intallation complete (underside).

Installed ladder module.

Installing the Rest of the Mainline Turnouts on the Center Bench1/6/2020

I am back from my Christmas holiday and ready to
continue work on the center bench. Completing the main line track on
the center bench will involve constructing and
installing the two more prefab turnout modules (#602 and 603; #604,
605, 606, and 607), and running the 98
Undetected Routes and Turnouts Track Power A and the 98 Com Track
Power B buses on
the wire mounting board and then running feeders out to these modules. Once this
is complete, I can cut bus wires
and and feeders and install all the rest of the 96 and 98 mainline
detected track blocks. N scale track laying requires great perscisoion and should not be rushed. This will take some time.

Center Bench Track Plan

2/6/2020 Today I completed track laying and wiring for the
Altamont Terminal lead and ladder and all of the main line track on
center bench including the loop and the auto reversing traverse track,
which allows locos and trains to turn around. I'll install and
wire track for
the rest of the sidings, the shop complex, and the turntable round
house
complex after I work out the elevations and rough in the terracing, the
ramps, and the surrounding
topography.

Track laying and wiring complete for all the center bench mainline track including the loop and the auto-reversing traverse track as well as the Altamont Terminal lead and ladder.